Folks, Krater now has co-op, amidst a massive overhaul of systems and such! To celebrate, it’s now at ridiculous prices on Steam for today only.

Krater – 7.49USD / Krater Collector’s Edition (Krater, OST, Dr Cerebro character DLC) – 9.99USD / Krater 2 Pack – 13.49 / Krater Collector’s Edition 2 Pack on Gamersgate (Steamworks) – 19.99USD

Always a hard sell with this one, it seems. But, if you want Torchlight meets Borderlands with emphasis on MOBA-esque combat across curiously green and gorgeous irradiated countryside, there is much bang for buck going on right here. Maybe keep it for winter, if you’re one of those seasonal types. As stated prior, Mac version update coming early November.

@cgrajko Sure, didn’t know they were selling a 4-pack. If another two squaddies want in on a $15 copy of Torchlight 2 (and 1 apparently), I’m all ears.

@wrdsmth If the first word I thought was “facepalm” when I clicked on that image, does it make me just as bad of a person, and should I feel bad?

Mad Riders (PC, 360, PS3) – Review

Have Techland Nail’d the notion of Pure fun, or will the competition pass this cheap racer in a Blur?

Easy, it’s bargin bin right now. Unfortunate (for the devs), but true.

@feenwager Ghost Trick is $30 on the DS.

Honestly I’d love it if bigger, more involving games made it onto iOS, even if they cost a little bit more. Final Fantasy Tactics is $15, but you’re talking somewhere around 100 hours of content. When the PSP version was $20 it was considered a steal (I think it started out at $40). The price ceiling is probably the main thing keeping a lot of “big” developers from the iOS platform. It’s really wacking out the perceived value of a game.

Ghost Trick hits iOS today, and if you buy the whole thing it’ll set you back $9.99. A wise man said that is a bit steep for an iOS game, which got me thinking:

What are you comfortable paying, and what do you expect from iOS (Android for you heathens) games for your money?

Just paid $16 for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I feel pretty good about that. Into Chapter 2 now and I can vouch for @bluesforbuddha‘s love for the game. Pretty slick package and an old school difficulty curve fit for aged kings of the 16bit area.

Another game I’ve dived back into on the side? Phoenix Wright. Can’t help but think of Pete every time I see him in the game. Branding works!

@Shingro Maybe a suffix or prefix should be investigated. I politely bark shotgun on the prefix “grizzled”, only because it does wonders for my self-esteem.

@beige Oh, and rolling back a few posts, indeed – Call of Juarez. Great series by an even greater studio. Real do-anything Poles. Xpand Rally/Nail’d racing games to Euro-Westerns, flawed but endearing sci-fi FPS games in the Chrome series, to slightly overambitious sniper titles. One thing’s for sure, The Cartel looks like Techland are having a lot of fun making it. Count me in and colour me intrigued.

AND, to nobody in particular, do mark in your calendars that Section 8: Prejudice comes out today…or, more likely, tomorrow due to NA time. Space Marine Skydiving. No tandem. Cheap fu is really kicking derrière this year. 15 dollars for Prejudice, for the new Mount & Blade, for Sanctum (which I hope to gush about after a few more co-op sessions)…lots of good stuff.

Looking forward to Prejudice especially.

I’ll say one thing about Just Cause 2, that’s a beautiful god damn world they’ve created.

It’s definitely on the same level as Far Cry 2, Red Faction Guerrilla, and even GTA IV for me. Fun to cause some mayhem in, but ultimately flawed. Great cheap-fu fodder.

I feel like such an asshole saying that, because it’s obvious how much work went in to those games.

@RedSwirl But I don’t necessarily think it’s about nostalgia as a whole with Recettear, it’s a strange little tangent borne of a particular facet of the ever-present “shop in an RPG”. You could create similar things in other games. A time management starship repair game within the Homeworld universe, ala Flight Control or Diner Dash, for example. In fact, you mention something similar yourself – a ranching spin-off from Red Dead. I’d certainly play that, I had fun enough with GUN’s slightly anaemic take on it.

And big news! Section 8: Prejudice will be dropping in early 2011 for…$15USD! Going self-published and all digital distribution seems to be working out well for Timegate. Looks like they’re jumping into the Blacklight/Lead & Gold/Monday Night Combat realm of Cheap-Fu pricing. This time, we’re looking at a 5 hour campaign, four times the amount of equipment and weapons, new vehicles and new and improved dynamic combat missions. PC version for me this time.

@rampantbicycle Charming little ornaments!

@bowlisimo That would be a well-spent $10. That’s what I’ll be handing over to GameFly for it. Cheap Fu in full effect. As for the “art of” book, I’ll gladly be paying 3 times that.

@redswirl I think the definition you’re looking for is “Zelda: The Man’s Way”.

@beige Sir, Malicious popped up on the Japanese PSN…and I’ve sneaking suspicion that this masochistic boss-rush game will be right up your alley. Fingers crossed for a localisation. Talk about the Cheapest of Fu, it’s 800 yen. Gorgeous, too. http://bit.ly/9iTeiS

Great work on the podcast, gents! Nothing really to add, once again gloriously covering the topics like nobody’s business. I’ll only add that Homeworld remains the only game I’ve been truly satisfied with in terms of an ending only because the bond with my “people” was set early and incredibly well, with the journey against all odds coming to a dramatic close and an honest, endearing finale.

Incredible that, of all the genres renowned for storytelling, an RTS has the competition beat in terms of saga evocation and a closing that is pristine, subtle, restrained and satisfying. Anyway, just one fool’s opinion! Onto other things.

Care of the generous @poimandre I just played a number of rounds of the direct-download PSN multiplayer FPS Blacklight: Tango Down. It’s rough, but it’s ready. Incidentally, only a few days ago I played my first ever bit of Call of Duty, online at that…and it didn’t really gel with me at all. I do love the notion of the fierce, no-holds barred world of the competitive shooter – regardless of its stereotypical adolescent denizenry – but MW2 had a much more frenetic flow than I’m accustomed to. Anyway, having had an eye on Blacklight ever since it dropped on 360 and PC earlier in the year, it was great to see it tweaked and updated for the PSN release.

It doesn’t really compare to what I’ve played of Modern Warfare, possibly more akin to a slightly arcade cyberpunk Counterstrike. Less spec-fiction than NeoTokyo, though. In any case, it’s a perfect example of what people either love or hate about the current bevy of shooters – not that the inundation theory REALLY stands up to scrutiny. Consistent positive feedback loop of unlocks going towards new weapons, equipment, custom parts and weapon tag buffs; you either like this kind of extraneous motivator or you think it creates a disconnect between motive, drive and outcome. Being fairly new to the idea, having cut teeth on Bad Company, it’s a nice touch – especially considering the mix and match nature of the gun customisation.

The gameplay is frenetic, but controlled. I’ve only sunk time into team deathmatch, but there’s a roster of other game modes available and spread across, what, twelve maps? Fantastic addition to the Cheap Fu argument. Really enjoying it so far. Fifteen dollars on the NA PSN, I imagine the same goes for XBLA.

I will say the techno-themed aesthetic is jovially dealt with here, dropping a minimap in favour of the “HRV” – a visor you activate that negates weapon usage but allows you to see through walls and structures to attain the location of team mates, points of interest and enemies. Despite sounding like a novelty, it really helps to channel players towards each other and eliminates camping to a large degree. Also, running with the cyberpunk/electronic warfare aspect, you can hurl electro-flashbang grenades that scramble your visuals, throw down the electronic interference version of a smoke grenade etc. which leaves a much cleaner taste in the mouth than some grunt splattering the walls with your brain. Thumbs up thus far.

@angryjedi Neverwinter Nights, eh? Damn the timezones, but as a single player game…what’s the gist? You know my terrible flaws as a man in regards to fantasy…although, I’m easing back into the trope realm by way of Rise of the Argonauts. Last fantasy game I played was…Lord, Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption.

P.S. I miss our valiant leader @RocGaude 😦

Costume Quest is rad. If this is what to expect from Double Fine in the future, sign me up.

Instead of not having any fun with Halo tonight I decided to try a few demos.

Hydrophobia seems decent, but it also seems like an HD PS2 game. Definitely a good call to release it at $15. As a piece of cheap-Fu it’s worth a look.

Enslaved is now on my radar. I thought the demo was fantastic. The whole vibe reminded me of Jak & Daxter, in a way. Comes out tuesday, I may grab it when I get back from Chicago.

@beige Surprisingly (or not), I couldn’t agree with you more. The B-Movie aspect of DP (Henceforth confused with “Double Penetration”) just didn’t click with me. Maybe I was a bit harsh on my feelings toward the game. It definitely was a sleeper hit for a lot of people, just not me. I didn’t have the patience to sit down and play it. Might have had something to do with my lack of enjoyment derived from creepy/spooky/scary games, as well. You guys ever play D on the Sega Saturn? Same thing. Couldn’t get through more than 10 minutes of it (of course, I was 12) without getting the crap scared out of me.

But I digress. Maybe DP is fun, but it’s just not my cup of tea.

Anyone following GamersGate on twitter? They just did a “Talk like a Pirate Week” contest/giveaway. I walked away with free digital copies of “Broken Sword 2 – The Smoking Mirror” and “Broken Sword 2 – The Smoking Mirror.” Don’t ever let it be said that twitter wasn’t good for anything but mindless dribble…

• Free inflatable beer pong table.
• Free Android stickers – http://tinyurl.com/25dt7sa
• 2 Free Digital copies of games I probably never would have discovered
• $25 Movie Gift Card (good for…one ticket?)

Indie Games Bundle: 12 Games, $29.99

http://www.theindiebundle.com/

And go.

@unmanneddrone I second what @bigdaddygamebot said. That was some amazing insight. Thanks for sharing, man.

…and this right here? This is some sexy Cheap Fu:

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/15/gamefly-selling-god-of-war-3-mass-effect-2-and-more-for-under/

New batch of $6 games just popped up on Direct2Drive.com

Arsenal of Democracy: A Hearts of Iron Game
Champions Online
Men of War Red Tide
King’s Bounty: The Legend
DiRT 2
Serious Sam: The First Encounter
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Silverfall
Silverfall: Earth Awakening

All, obviously, $6. Mac support? None that I’m aware of. Boot-camp it up!

@A.J. @sinfony Didn’t it come out a few months/years/whatever ago that there was a game on Steam that was actually running with the No-CD executable already built into the file system? I can’t remember what the game was, but I remember hearing something along the lines of the crack’s developer playing it and finding his signature in the exe or something. Who knows.

Great show guys. I’m not really into a lot of Japanese gaming, so I don’t have a lot to say about these games. My attentions span, and current amount of free time, just don’t really mesh well with the Japanese style of gaming. I find myself with less and less time to log on to a game (as I’ve stated before) and, frankly, it makes me worried about my commitment to games like Fallout: New Vegas, and anything else remotely long in length.

By the way, I take back my previous comments about playing Halo: Reach under protest. Amazing game and I’m really glad I got it. I’m looking forward to squading up with anyone that wants to play AFTER I complete the single player story.

Also…FURAI MI TO DA MOONU…I see what you did there…

I just saw the trailer for the new Devil May Cry developed my Ninja Theory. Is it wrong that this is the most interested I’ve ever been in a DMC game?

I thought of another major problem I have with many Japanese games. Pacing. There’s of course the obvious 30 – 60 minute intros in a jRPG before you even get to your first battle, but it’s deeper than that. Ever notice how the dialog in a japanese game never seems to flow? It’s like it was written and recorded with the assumption that the next line wouldn’t happen until the player pressed a button like the text boxes of old. If characters talk over each other in a Japanese game, I actually get somewhat excited and hopeful.

Then there’s the mini games. Mini games exist in both eastern and western games, but for some reason the Japanese ones just kill the momentum of the game. I remember before No More Heroes came out and I was watching various videos online to see what I thought of it. As soon as I saw the video of the main character awkwardly walking around collecting coconuts in a balls to the walls action game, I knew I wanted nothing to do with it. Putting up posters in Kingdom Hearts 2 is the reason I’ve never been able to go back to that game and finish after losing my save (much to Mike’s dismay). But then you look at the hacking mini games in Mass Effect 2 or Bioshock. For whatever reason, I actually enjoy them. I think it’s because they manage to be quick enough so as not to be tedious.

Also, @sinfony. I have done the whole hacked .exe thing for KotoR off of Steam, and not only did it work perfectly, but it wasn’t too hard nor did I feel particularly devious doing it. There’s a great how to at the Wide Screen Gaming Forum should anyone want to seek it out.

A word to the wise concerning today’s Steam deal on KOTOR: well, first, KOTOR is on sale on Steam for $2.50, which is nice. However, the game executable included in the Steam version is encrypted. This means that the hi-res/widescreen/UI mods out there for the game will not work. I can tell you from hard experience that the available resolution and UI are effectively unusable on a modern display. The only way to get around this that I know of is to use a cracked EXE (such as a no CD crack might include). If you are uncomfortable finding and using such a thing, as I generally am, I advise you to steer clear of KOTOR on PC.

Just some more money saving tips. Gamersgate.com has the complete Season 1 of Tales of Monkey Island for $14 – http://www.gamersgate.com/DDB-TOMIC/tales-of-monkey-island-complete-season-bundle

PC and Mac versions.

Another great show, guys! The while Cheap Fu thing is a great topic, because I’m convinced it’s going to save this industry.

Basically, the gaming industry has, in many cases, become bloated. Games’ budgets exceed many Hollywood films. Yet they have a smaller audience and a much higher price point of entry. While it’s fine for big devs / pubs such as Activision, EA, Epic, etc. to drop that kind of money, it leaves smaller studios in a really rough place. In the film world, a movie like Little Miss Sunshine is relatively inexpensive to make. The gaming equivalent, where everything would look “real” still needs to compete graphically and gameplay wise with something like Call of Duty for it to garner any attention. Then good luck selling what is perceived as a subpar title for the same $60.

The explosion of $15 downloadable titles has given a great opportunity to smaller devs and independents. You asked if we should weep for Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert. I think this is the greatest thing to happen to them. They are fonts of creativity, and it has sadly been proven that the mass market is not willing to drop $60 on the promise of their innovation. So now they can invest less money to put out a shorter game still full of whatever awesome/crazy stuff they can come up with and survive as a business. It sure as hell beats the alternative of them leaving the industry altogether.

Just two years ago, Monday Night Combat would have never happened. Ditto for Braid. Flower? Forget it. Some of my favorite games have been made possible thanks to this new business model.

In truth, I think we have Portal to thank for this. While it wasn’t a $15 digital release (though it did eventually become one), Portal showed mass gaming audiences that it was OK for a game to be a tight, well put together, interesting, and experimental game that only took a few hours to play. It was still a good game. That is the mold that many of the Cheap Fu titles follow.

A little late to the party but great job again guys with the show. I was keeping the episode for my bus ride back from my first game – helped keep my mind off the loss as well as my extremely sore ribs and knee but I disgress…

Cheap Fu is the staple of my gaming habits like @mhmason. As a student with an income level that is mostly non-existant, my ability to purchase 60$ games is severely limited (essentially only at Christmas and my birthday). When I do have some cash, I try to squeeze as many purchases in as I can with the amount of money I have. As an example, I succeeded in purchasing 13 360 and DS games for 300$ last Christmas. My ability to purchase games at such a reduced price is what allows me to enjoy a larger variety of titles than I have been able to in the past. It allows me to try games that I perhaps wouldn’t have otherwise if the price point had been 60$ – Mirror’s Edge (Hot shit), Darksiders, Mass Effect and Zach & Wiki (Hot Shit) come to mind. The amount of games I have played this generation over the previous ones has easily doubles because of the opportunity to buy games cheap.

The explosion of quality downloadable games has also been a boon to my limited income. Paying under 15$ to get great games like Shadow Complex, Spolsion Man and recently for me, Banjo-Tooie is amazing and really helps stretch my gaming dollar.

Finally, the best 15$ game I’ve ever purchased is probably Shadow Complex but the best 15$ I’ve ever spent on a game is probably on a copy of Goldeneye 007 I got in high school. The number of 6pm to 6 am multiplayer sessions I had with my friends more than made up for the cost of the cartridge 🙂

Keep up the great shows guys.

@Rocgaude @Sinfony I went with Ol’ Reliable XP as well, for my bootcamp. It’s small and works. No reason to upgrade if it’s just for gaming.

And speaking of gaming, 30 days worth of sales over at http://www.direct2drive.com/ plus some $6 games! Hooray!

Attention bargain-seekers: Company of Heroes on mega-sale on Steam. Base game for $2.50, all of it for $12.50. Seems ripe for some squad multiplayer action.

I have to say my piece of Cheap Fu — because not only do I heavily practice in the art, I am a bona fide master.

Admission: I haven’t paid over $30 for a game in almost three years. I have three mouths to feed and a significant other who rightly controls the family coffers. Which is, to say, $60 is not a price tag I can drop unless it’s in regards to grocery costs or car repairs.

Thankfully, the wonderful world of downloadable games is burgeoning these days, easily matching any excitement I have for disc based games. In other words, they hold equal ground for me. It’s like you guys said in episode 2.2, the true commodity for us olden’s is time. I like the gratifying feeling of finishing something, and it’s easier for me to do so in a more concise title. That’s not to say I don’t love slow burn epics like Dragon Age, but they’re more like the expensive steak you get every now and again and not a weekly meal in my gaming diet.

It’s also worth noting that you can game the triple A titles for scalpers prices if you’re willing to get over the notion that you have to play everything brand new and out of the gate. I recently picked up BioShock 2 for all of $13 a few months ago, and I just got Mass Effect 2 for a paltry $25. And I’ll enjoy them as much now as the people who bought them $60 new at the beginning of the year.

Strangely, the times I do get games close to day and date of release are ironically during my birthday or Christmas. It’s like I’m 8 all over again.

The moral of my story? I’m cheap.

p.s. before I return to Squawk Box back to it’s rightful owners, I would like to congratulate Beige for adding “highbrow-ass show” to my vernacular.

Also

So I was heading out the door when…

Seems like the Cheap-fu tsunami continues with Malicious, a rather intriguing Japanese-developed PSN downloadable title set for release before the end of the year. It’s essentially an arena brawler/technical hack-and-slash game with the production values of a Bayonetta or Devil May Cry. Perhaps even channelling a bit of the ol’ Dynasty Warriors. In any case, this really lends credence to the discussion on Cheap-fu.

Nice art-style? Check. Production values of merit? Check. Gameplay that appears to be exciting? Check. Intrigue rising? Indeed.

Again, have a great weekend.

@zegolf Scott Pilgrim is $10 on PSN, too.

I’d like to throw it out there that I think we should get Dungeon Defenders on PSN to support… well, PSN. And @unmanneddrone. If you don’t have a headset… then, well… get one! 🙂

@cptcarnage Torchlight is most certainly Cheap Fu. And I just know I will buy it on XBLA despite already having a PC copy.

I didn’t realize Dungeon Defenders was a PC and XBLA game, as well. Currently $8.99 on GamersGate. Is that the platform you all are going to pick it up on, or are you going PSN? XBLA?

I think it could be another fun cheap-fu game!

Also, Scott Pilgrim is only $10 on XBLA?!? That makes it all the more tempting!

Another excellent show guys!

Loved the Cheap Fu topic!

Its slightly outside of the price range you mentioned at its launch ($20 instead of $15) but I think Torchlight falls into the category of both Hot Shit and Cheap Fu.

Finished the podcast. Great episode on a subject that has actually been going around the general gaming discussions of BitMob and 1up’s blog community.

As much as I appreciate the $15 and under Cheap Fu, I still feel like there’s a hole in the retail space compared to last generation.

Right now we have these $10 and $15 downloadable games that are mostly similar to really good Super NES games. Not saying anything about them being less enjoyable than retail games, just saying what tier they belong in. The problem is that the next step up from $15 is almost always $60, and I think there needs to be a tier in-between that both in price and production value whether it’s in the retail or downloadable space.

Here at the Squawkbox we’ve already gone over games like Mafia II and Splinter Cell: Convicction that we won’t pay $60 for day one, but we will get down the line at $20 or $35. That “bargain bin” mentality that I’m starting to see all over the place says to me that all retail console games should NOT be $60. I heard somewhere early this gen that Microsoft doesn’t let publishers launch retail 360 games below $40. If so, then that is definitely a problem.

Those downloadable games are nice, but I’m still waiting for something there with serviceable full 3D graphics combined with the creativity that the AAA space doesn’t allow. The HD console retail space needs more Deadly Premonitions (which I just booted up), 3D Dot Game Heroes, Demons Souls, and Sirens. The variance between those games and the AAA blockbusters is part of what made the PS2 generation so rich. Maybe next gen hard drives and pipelines will be big enough for those kinds of games to arrive at the downloadable space.

The only place I’m seeing this “B-Tier retail” survive right now is on the Wii. That system’s library is a great example of variable pricing. In 2010 alone I’ve seen several Wii games that while not Blockbusters are definitely sold at the appropriate price point: Endless Ocean ($30 with Wii Speak), Fragile Dreams ($30), Trauma Team ($40), and most recently for me Gunblade NY and LA Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack ($30).

@mcstabwithlies Good man. Let me know what your tag is within FS and we’ll get some games going.

@angryjedi I dunno, there’s something so much more rewarding tackling a game in co-op with friends. I’m not sure where the line is drawn when it comes to team-based games, though. Something about co-op versing the AI, be it Borderlands or Castlevania, Horde mode in Gears or the campaign in Halo, compstomping in any RTS…there’s a lot less on the line, and harkens back to those arcade roots/8-16bit two-player games like Streets of Rage, Double Dragon or Sunset Riders.

When it’s combined within the glory of the Cheap-Fu, it is unstoppable. Dungeon Defenders should be a hoot in that regard.

@unmanneddrone Interesting you bring up co-op and Cheap Fu together. The recent Castlevania title was a great example. I really enjoy it by myself, but then I’m a weird old loner who is voluntarily playing through all of the Final Fantasy titles right now. But it’s a different—and great—experience in co-op that I can highly recommend.

(Follow @ffmarathon on Twitter if you want to keep up to date on my Final Fantasy marathon progress. I have 6 months to beat 1-10 to beat Tolkoto, but I’m also going to do X-2, XII and XIII after that.)

Wow, just going to echo @zegolf‘s satisfaction with Episode 2. Great show, guys. Brightened my long drive to the coal face. While I did tag my post in response to the game literacy chinwag, the game list was buried under a rather top-heavy diatribe, thus it was my own damn fault! It was more a list of “further reading” than “core syllabus”. No crying over spilt lanolin here, it was a top-notch show!

Now, to the 15 dollar price-point, in particular for the competitive multiplayer games.

Where there are legs to the big multiplayer-focused shooters, such as Halo or Call of Duty, a lot of it seems to be driven by @cgrajko’s burdensome canon. People know what they’re getting, they’re comfortable with it, they know there’s going to be support behind it – even if it means fleecing, nickeling and diming and frank daylight robbery with every map pack (we know which CEO with the brimstone aftershave this represents). People are willing to shell out their sixty bucks (you North Americans…imagine if your games cost close to a hundred bones, as they do in the land of the kangaroo) because they will get their money’s worth in the area that it matters.

It’s all a question, if a developer wants to hit the market and try to get their slice of the pie in an established genre, of offering something unique. Within that, it seems like a strange balance must be struck between appealing to the well-trod sensibilities of gamers who know what they want and the idea that new ideas and concepts must be ushered in to keep distance between the big guns.

You find the servers for Fat Princess always buzzing, but Section 8 – a very competant Tribes-esque FPS – a ghost town. Monday Night Combat is still enjoying a honeymoon, but the PSN version of Lead & Gold is pretty much dead. The common theme here is uniqueness within familiarity (Fat Princess…candy-flavoured violence essentially a top-down take on Starwars Battlefront, Monday Night Combat snagging that Team Fortress 2 frivolity around a core of the simple tower defense notion). Not only that, but knowing a developer does on console what developers always do on PC – ala, support, support, support – makes gamers realise there’s always the chance of new and exciting things coming down the pipeline. Nothing worse than the feeling that not even the devs have stuck around to shake out the bedbugs.

In any case, that’s just the competitive multiplayer side of things. The boom of co-op experiences certainly puts me in @feenwager‘s camp. I just can’t do many competitive action games anymore, or at least I’ve had my fill of them for the time being. If anything the co-op experience is what would save the single-player campaign in triple-A titles, as paradoxical as that sounds. People want to traverse the Halos, Gears, Killzones etc. with friends. I’ll be running through Kane & Lynch 2 pretty soon, exclusively in co-op, as I do occasionally with Lost Planet 2. So, with co-op-centric fifteen dollar cheap-fu, I’ll certainly throw all my weight behind that school.

Plus, variety is the spice of the cheap-fu subset.

Excellent, excellent show fellas. I’m definitely digging the new format over the old. I think what I like the most about the changes that have been made is that anyone can enjoy it without having had participated in something, exclusively. In the old format I felt distanced, often times skipping through parts, by the fact that I hadn’t played most of the games you all were talking about. Now, with this new format, the ~2 hours really fly by and I don’t even notice how long it’s been!

I don’t, so much, mind the stereo sound. I have to agree with Pete in that it helps keep people seperate and seems less like people are just talking over each other. Also, don’t use the Firefox plug-in “FoxyTunes.” That’s some horseshit right there, at least as far as the squawkbox is concerned. I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out why the podcast was playing every couple of seconds while I was making a post. Come to find out, Shift+Space is a shortcut in FoxyTunes to auto-play any directly linked MP3s on a website. As the podcast was a direct link, and I tend to linger on the shift key when I type, every couple of sentences I was starting up the podcast. Horse shit.

Hot Shit? That you guys aren’t afraid to talk non-gaming related stuff in the Hot/Horse Shit section.
Also Hot Shit? The Scott Pilgrim music at the end of the podcast. That, alone, is almost enough to make me go pick it up.

@zegolf Hah. I have an Atari 800 sitting in my living room, so I can show my age too. And my folks have original cartridges for Pole Position, Pac-Man, Missile Command, Asteroids, Star Raiders and all manner of other stuff, too. E.T., though… that must be pretty rare now. Respect. 🙂

I agree with what you say; I’m more than happy to be part of this five-and-tenning business when the games are of this quality. Anyone remember back in the 8-bit days when there were “straight to budget” releases? Many of them were excellent games. One developer for the Atari 8-bit range (Zeppelin) made some of the most well-renowned games for that system… and they were £4.99 each on cassette.

Just getting through the first part (don’t want to spoil the rest for my a.m. commute) and I’m really glad you guys touched a bit upon the whole “playing with kids” aspect of the Summer of Arcade. For me, personally, I often forget that a world exists outside of the 18-25 (holy shit, I’m no longer in that age bracket…) market and that game developers are still trying to capture the outliers. I think one of the things to consider is that kids are going to play video games during the summer. What better way, then, for a kid to get a brand new game than to tell his parents “Mommy, Daddy! Buy me this game! It’s only $15!” You guys said it yourselves. You don’t even realize that you’re buying these games until you look at your credit card statement.

We’re now living in a mindset that $5 here, and $10 here is really nothing (probably part of the reason that, at least in the states, the economy is in the shitter). Apps cost $.99 on the iTunes marketplace, movies can be rented for a dollar. It’s no longer “nickel and diming” but rather “Five and Tenning” our wallets. From a business standpoint, it’s pure genius. Convince people that $15 is pocket change, and before you know it they’re now buying that “$60 game” in increments. Lowered development costs (a la Deathspank’s dual development) coupled with free advertising (Minor Nelson tweeting, facebooking and generally speaking out about it) equal profits. Add in to that mix podcasts (free) blabbing on and on about how much they love Summer of Arcade, and it’s a recipe for pure success.

I’m glad to be a part of this five and tenning society because we, as “gamers” are really reaping the benefits. The Summer of Arcade has produced some phenomenal games at completely affordable prices. 6 months after the release of the XBox, developers and publishers would have been trying to push Deathspank and Monday Night Combat as $60 releases. Unfortunately, we probably would have paid for it.

Oh, and Pete? I’ll show my age when I dig out my physical copy of E.T. for the 2600 and snap a picture of it. It’s in my parents’ basement somewhere.

Showing my age….

Thanks so much for your hard work, gentlemen. Very excited to listen to the SoS on the drive to work today, so brilliant timing, Pete! Can’t wait!

I know I’ve been waffling on about RUSE for a while, but check this “RUSE Experience” website they’ve developed. It’s terrific! Incredible production values, you get to swing around an engagement in this quasi-3D way with location-specific sound triggers. If The Curfew and technology like this website came together, I think ol’ @feenwager would be satisfied, rather than coping with “My First Performance”-level stuff. Granted, the only caveat is the narrator in parts. Shame it wasn’t someone from the earlier trailers. But hey.

http://ruse.uk.ubi.com/experience/

Take a chance and enjoy!

Will SquadCast 3.0 cost $10 extra? Can I get it on the East Coast or is it West Coast USA only?

Is it free on PSN?

Fuuuuuuuuu.

Anyway, @Rocgaude, where do I recognize that guy’s voice from? Is he famous or something? +1 for Christina Hendricks’ bra, bro.

SquadCast 2.2 Cheap Fu audio http www squadronofshame…

SquadCast 2.2: Cheap Fu

Direct link

In this second episode of our spangly new season, Chris, Mark, Pete and Jeff explore “Cheap Fu”, the mystical wonderland where $15 buys you many wondrous things. They also take their bi-weekly delve into the vats of Hot Shit and Horseshit.

Music in this episode:
First interlude: That piece from Zuma.
Second interlude: Theme from Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark by Jeremy Soule
Ending: Theme from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game by Anamanaguchi

The tag for any discussion about this episode is Cheap Fu. If you’ve got thoughts to share, please remember to use the tags so Chris can find what you said later!

Enjoy! Happy Tuesday/Wednesday, boys and girls.

Important note: If you were formerly subscribed to the MP3-only feed, please resubscribe to the other one. We’re consolidating everything into that one feed. All new episodes are in MP3 format now.

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MIMO.